Congressman Hopes to Convince Trump for Agricultural Trade with Cuba

In a stage of growing hostility from the U.S. government to Cuba, Republican Congressman Rick Crawford said on Thursday in this capital that he hopes to convince President Donald Trump of the need of boosting agricultural trade with the island.

In statements to the press at the National Hotel, where the U.S.-Cuba Agricultural Conference was opened earlier, the representative for Arkansas alleged the pragmatism of the President and real estate tycoon as a 'business-oriented' man.

I already talked with Trump about the issue and I hope to continue discussing it, said the 52-year-old congressman, who is promoting in the House of Representatives a draft law on exports to Cuba, a commercial link hindered by the current economic, commercial and financial blockade for almost 60 years.

According to Crawford, the commercial ties between the two countries could be a starting point in the goal of improving bilateral relations, which have experienced a setback since the arrival of the Republican President in the White House in January 2017.

The representative, who was ratified on Tuesday in the midterm elections (with 69 percent support), acknowledged the impact in Cuba of the restrictions stemming from the blockade, particularly regarding the impossibility of extending credits for the purchase of Farm products.

However, he said he did not know in detail the economic effects caused by almost six decades of blockade against the island and ruled out referring to the escalation in the anti-Cuban rhetoric of the current administration.